


Now & Forever Alternate (True) Ending

by Kedreeva



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Ending, Everyone Is Alive, Fix It Fic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-19
Updated: 2015-12-19
Packaged: 2018-05-07 15:58:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5462495
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kedreeva/pseuds/Kedreeva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Allow me to tell you about the final two episodes of Haven- how they <i>really</i> went, and how the show truly ended, which was <i>a lot happier</i>.</p><p>A <i>hell</i> of a lot happier, actually.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Now & Forever Alternate (True) Ending

At the beginning of episode 25, Croatoan finds Audrey and Nathan alone. He offers Nathan the chance to leave Haven, to cross through the Shroud with an exact replica of Audrey and live happily ever after. Nathan would forget Haven even existed, and New!Audrey would have all of Audrey’s memories, love him just the same as the real Audrey. He’ll never know the difference, Croatoan tells him.

Nathan, of course, bristles at the very idea. There is no one for him but Audrey, the  _real_  Audrey, the girl he fell in love with, the girl he’s been fighting for all this time. No, he will not take the deal. He would never take the deal. Croatoan finds this disappointing, but he leaves them be for now.

Audrey and Nathan hatch a plan to have Vicki sketch the broken aether core and then fix it so that it is whole again. Seems legit. Audrey asks Nathan why he didn’t take the deal, and Nathan tells her of course he would never do that, he loves  _her_. And she tells him that she loves _him_  and wants him to be  _happy_. He is happy with her though, even if it means staying where he is in danger, even if the world is falling apart all around them. Win or lose, thick or thin, Nathan wants to be with the real Audrey Parker, now and forever. She kisses him, and cannot find the words to say how grateful she is to have him in her life, but it is scrawled all over her face, written in the tears in her eyes.

As Vicki is trying to finish the drawing, Void!Duke appears at the station. He pursues them through the station, until a final confrontation occurs. He has obtained the drawing of the core, tears it in half, leaving the core a crumble of dust in Audrey’s hands. Everyone is sufficiently horrified. And then Duke starts talking.

Gloria tries to talk him down, but he has eyes only for getting Vicki, for fetching her Trouble from her to bring to Croatoan. Audrey and Nathan step between Void!Duke and Vicki, and he stops, because he was told not to hurt them. He starts picking at Audrey, saying terrible things. Accuses her of using him, and she accepts that with grace. Tells him that yes, she did use him, she played a heavy part in turning him into what he is now, and she is sorry, she was wrong, she should not have asked that of him. And as she moves closer and closer, she begins to ask him to remember not just who he  _is_ , but who he I  _wants to be_  when he looks in the mirror.

And Duke Crocker does not want to be Croatoan’s bitch.

He snaps out of it, tells Audrey  _I’m Duke Crocker, and I just want to go back to being a pirate_. She hugs him and he hugs back, looking up to Nathan, who nods. They’ve got him back. They can do this.

Except, Croatoan realizes that Duke is off his leash, and begins pulling Troubles from Duke to take for himself. Duke realizes what that means, knows there are terrible things inside of him that Croatoan will use to hurt more people, and begs his friends to kill him. They all refuse. He looks Nathan dead in the eyes and gives a short speech about how he  _cannot_  be responsible for this, he has to choose his own destiny and he  _chooses this_ , and when the next Trouble slips out of him, Duke turns to watch it, and Nathan grabs him, one arm around his neck, hand over his mouth.

Duke asked for this, tries not to struggle as Nathan backs them up to the table to ask for gravity's aid in taking his best friend's life. Audrey moves in close, draws Duke’s attention with his name, with her hands on his, brushing back his hair, tells him  _It’s going to be okay, we love you_  and Nathan says beside his ear  _You are the bravest man I know, Duke Crocker, you always have been. We’ve done so much together, so much we couldn’t have done without you. I owe you so much, and I’m gonna spend the rest of my life trying to repay that debt_. Duke tries to look over his shoulder, to see Nathan’s face, but all he can see is the image of the tattoo on Nathan’s forearm.

It is ending how he knew it would, how it had to end for him. He accepts this, believes he is ready to die. His death, however, activates a Trouble he had forgotten, one which causes a split between body and soul at the moment of death, keeping the soul bound to the mortal plane. Croatoan cannot access Duke's body without his soul, cannot reach the aether stored as Troubled blood.

At some point later, Dwight has shown up and helps Gloria move Duke’s body to the morgue until this over and they can bury him. Nathan looks exactly as haunted and gutted as he feels and just… walks away. Audrey sits in front of the computer staring at a photo of the three of them - her, Nathan, and Duke - until Laverne cheers her up with a photo of a kitten. Then Laverne shows a video of Nathan, who is coming back into the station, but he spots Croatoan outside, and turns to go to him. Audrey is too late to stop him.

Croatoan leads Nathan away. Tries to goad Nathan by talking about Duke’s death. When Nathan will not be had, refuses to acknowledge his friend as anything other than a hero, Croatoan banishes him against his will, to a diner outside of the Shroud, with replica!Audrey. He then tells Audrey that Nathan  _chose_  to leave, because he was so upset about having to kill Duke. Audrey isn’t sure she believes him at first, but he is quite convincing. She returns to the station heartbroken and alone.

Nathan does not take kindly to being banished. He does not remember how he got where he is, and the Audrey across from him is not quite… right. She acts a lot like Audrey, loves him like Audrey, has Audrey's memories, even some of the more _intimate_ ones he knows have to be real. They order pancakes and talk about what they don't remember and Nathan has so many questions, but this Audrey is not as curious (no one is) as  _his_  Audrey. So he cannot let it go, he follows his instincts, drives them back up to Haven, and upon arriving, she remembers enough to show him the Shroud, and to help him cross back into his home.

Meanwhile, Dwight, Audrey, and Vince hatch a plan to capture Croatoan in the New!Barn. Dwight agrees to bring Croatoan the crystal, and McHugh sidetracks him with a staged shootout so that Dwight must run to what appears to be an abandoned armory. It is not, it is the building they have chosen to be the new Barn construct. Croatoan arrives with Audrey and tosses everyone opposing them into the beach waters at the edge of Haven. He goes to take the crystal from Dwight, and Dwight tosses it over his head to Vince, and Vince springs the trap- but not before Croatoan banishes Dwight to the beach, too.

They are inside the New!Barn, the Armory, now, but it is breaking. Croatoan tells them the Barn resident must be willing and he is  _not_. The trap does not hold. Croatoan, pissed at their insolence, rends open the sky, tears a huge hole to the Void and allows aether to start spilling into Haven en masse. If he cannot get what he wants, he will destroy everything.

Dwight wakes up on the beach to the sound of a familiar voice. Duke stands at the edge of the sand, watching him, because not even ghosts are allowed to leave the Shroud. Duke tells him to get up, they need to go. Dwight tells him  _you’re dead_  and Duke smiles and communicates  _Yes I am. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t listen to me_. Duke has realized he is dead, and while he does not realize why he is not gone, he is determined to continue to do good while he still can.

Duke turns to go, and Dwight follows. Duke leads him to Nathan, who has appeared at the Shroud’s edge with New!Audrey. She remembers everything, and so does he, and she tells him to go find his Audrey, and then fades. Dwight relays to Nathan from Duke (because Nathan can’t see Duke) that Audrey is in trouble at the armory, and Nathan takes off to save her.

Duke then leads Dwight back to where Lizzie is. Dwight has spent time this day trying to determine if Lizzie is even real, and Duke seems to know this, had been watching when he was not in control of himself, had been privvy to Croatoan's workings 306523\. He tells Dwight that she is, but that he must believe that if he is to keep her with him. Then he leaves Dwight there to do just that.

Back at the armory, Audrey has agreed to help Croatoan exact his revenge upon his old world, as long as he promises to leave Haven alone, safe and sound. He has agreed, and she is drawing in the aether, shaping it for him, when Nathan arrives. She stops what she is doing and after assuring herself he’s really back and didn’t want to leave, she picks a fight with Croatoan, who gets so angry at her rejection of his efforts and desires that he heaves a bolt of aether at her. Nathan gets between them, takes the hit, and slumps to the ground, dead.

Audrey is  _crushed_. She kneels beside him, but there is nothing she can do. Rage takes her. She gets up and squares off with Croatoan. She digs claws made of the sharpest words into him, spitting that he doesn’t love her, he wouldn’t be hurting her like this if he loved her,  _these people_  love her- Nathan and Duke and Dwight and Gloria and the rest of them. Croatoan protests, says he loves her, and she snarls that he wouldn’t have killed Nathan, wouldn’t have driven Duke to kill, wouldn’t be torturing Dwight with his dead kid. She snaps that  _nothing_  he is doing is for her, it’s all  _for him_ , and her words hit exactly home because Croatoan can see how much she believes what she is saying.

And in the face of Audrey’s rage, Croatoan backs down. He  _does_  love her, more than anything, but he’d gotten so wrapped up in anger and revenge that he’d been blinded, broken. He asks her what he can do to prove he loves her, and she demands he fix things. Fix Nathan, give Dwight his child for real,  _fix my home, fix my family_. She does not believe she can ask him to fix Duke, is afraid that if she asks, if he is able to bring Duke back, that Croatoan will use him, take the Troubles, lose sight of whatever hesitation he currently has. And Croatoan does as she asks, because he wants Audrey to love him, too. And when he has fixed what he can, he finally turns to Vince and says that he will go into the Barn.

Audrey asks him why. Croatoan tells her because it will make her happy. It is how he will show to her that he really does love her. But Vince interrupts, tells them that it won't work, that Croatoan's aether is not activated the way it needs to be, the way it is in Audrey. Vince cannot activate the Armory based on Croatoan. He has the love to run the Armory, but not the right kind of aether to activate it. Only Audrey has that. She’ll have to go in, too.

They were so  _close_  to a happy ending. It’s not right and it’s not fair. She steps out onto the balcony with Nathan to say goodbye as privately as they can. He tells her that he thinks he can let her go this time, that they had a great run, and he has finally learned to be thankful for the time they had. She kisses him, tells him that she loves him, has always loved him, and then makes him promise that he will find someone when she is gone. Find someone and fall in love and be  _happy_  in a way that they never found a way to do with all the terrible things that happened. He tells her he’ll think of her always, every minute of every hour of every day. She will be in every time he feels something, every time he sees the denizens of Haven living Trouble-free, every time someone is able to smile, every time they are all safe because of her. He will love her until he dies, he will love her until forever ends, and she can come back to him. Because this time, she’s going into the Barn forever, not just for 27 years.

Then he leaves, because he has to, and she goes into the Armory with Vince and Croatoan. Nathan stands in the street outside, watches as the Armory powers up, watches all the aether in Haven be gathered up by the Armory. We see flashes of the denizens and former denizens of Haven having the aether drawn out of them; in Haven and all over the world. We see a flash of Ghost!Duke standing beside his body, fading when the aether leaves him, and then he gasps awake, the Trouble which had kept him separate leaving with all the rest of them.

Nathan, still making his goodbye speech to Audrey in voice-over, then watches the Armoy wink out of existence. He closes his eyes, touches his lips with his fingers, because he can feel now. Everyone is safe from the Troubles forever. They have all paid such a heavy price.

 

* * *

 

 

It cuts, then, to several months later. Haven is bright and sunny, no clouds in sight. The streets are clean and clear, the houses and other buildings are in good repair,  _The Grey Gull_  perches at the edge of the water, freshly rebuilt. Everything is peaceful. Nathan is at the police station, listening to Stan read off the open calls, but all of it is “cats in trees” problems. Small town squabbles. The sort of stuff that reminds him they are safe and well. Laverne appears to personally to take his radio request for where to send whom, and we finally see her face. It is a lovely face. Hello Laverne.

Dwight calls Nathan before he can escape the station, and asks him to drive down to the docks. Lizzie is there with Dwight and McHugh, and the three of them appear to be enjoying a sunny day fishing together. Dwight doesn't want to touch the worms and claims that Mchugh sucks at this, and they are clearly in need of rescue. Nathan agrees to go, drops by a local coffee shop on his way and meets with Gloria. She tells him that every test so far has come back clean of the genetic marker for the Troubles, and that she believes they are really gone forever. Nathan smiles, because he knew that, but he thanks her anyway. Vicki gives him a drawing of Audrey, one that can no longer hold supernatural power- but it does have the power to make him smile, gives him one more opportunity to send his thanks and love to Audrey for such safety and opportunity.

Nathan takes the scenic route along the bluffs to get to Dwight after that, checking on his safe, happy town to reassure himself that all is well. He rounds a curve in the road, and his heart nearly stops dead at the sight of the little red car stuck in the gravel on the shoulder. Despite his utter distraction at the sight, he somehow manages to park the Bronco without crashing, and walks to the passenger side door of the stopped vehicle, heart thundering in his ears, beating in his fingertips. He leans down to look in the window, and his heart really does stop for a moment.

It’s Audrey.

She turns in that moment, jumps and makes a startled noise when she sees him, tells him  _Nathan! God, you scared me half to death._  And he must be dreaming, he must be, but when he says, brokenly, “Parker?” she indicates the car around her and says in her familiar, wry manner, “Parker? I kind of crashed her!”

Nathan practically tears the car door from the hinges to get inside, kneels on the passenger seat and kisses Audrey for all he is worth, a kiss which she happily returns. He asks her how, and she tells him that the Barn only needed her to start up, to remove and collect all of the aether, to drag it all back into the Void, but that she was not necessary to its continued function afterward. Croatoan was enough to keep it running after that- she didn’t have to stay.

So she left. She came back.

She was going to surprise him, she admits, and he kisses her thoroughly again because she did surprise him anyway, even if it wasn't the way she wanted. She rests her forehead against his when he stops, tells him she’s glad she’s home, too.

The last scene in the show is Audrey and Nathan arriving at the newly reopened  _Gull_. They haven’t called ahead, a fact made clear by the way Duke freezes when he sees them coming through his front doors. The second he sees Audrey, he practically  _flies_  across the restaurant to pick her up in a hug, looks at Nathan like  _really really? she’s really back?_  and Nathan smiles and gives a little nod because these two have never needed words.

The sound switches to music, soft and happy as the sound from the  _Gull_ fades. Duke doesn’t let go of Audrey’s hand, grabs Nathan’s hand too, and drags them to the bar to begin pouring celebratory drinks. There are smiles and laughter all around as the camera begins to pan backward out of the  _Gull_ , and the screen fades to black for the final time.

**Author's Note:**

> This alternate ending is free use for anyone that would like to use it in any way, shape, or form. Headcanon it, use it for story plans as if it happened, write it out into actual story- however you want. It's yours now, too. Enjoy!


End file.
